After his ban from the NFL for domestic violence nearly two months ago, former Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice is hot again. Only this time as a Halloween costume. And it is a trend that his wife is not at all happy about.
Early in September the Baltimore Ravens running back was banned indefinitely from the NFL for beating up girlfriend–now wife–Janay Rice in an Atlantic City casino elevator. Now, as Halloween nears, a new trend features Halloween partygoers dressing up as the disgraced player.
Images have begun to appear on social media of people–including children–dressed as Rice, some dragging around blow-up dolls of women, others with wives and girlfriends sporting faux black eye makeup as if they’d been beaten, still others with white couples in blackface. The costume, like the act that inspired it, offends many different people for many different reasons.
The Twitter feed for Afro News, for instance, showed one of those folks costumed as Ray Rice in an October 27 Tweet.
There have been many others joining in this costume trend.
But this is a trend that has disgusted Rice’s wife, the victim of the violence that got her husband thrown out of professional football. In a recent Tweet, Janay said she is sad that her pain provides pleasure to others.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com